Political Quotes

“many of the speakers today who have expressed their opposition to this legislation have said time-and-time again that if this passes, it would be more difficult to balance the budget. Let us think about that for a minute. I would suggest that that is a clear, implicit, admission that their intention is to continue to use these transportation trust funds to mask the size of the deficit. Now, nobody has had the courage really to stand up and say that directly, to say, yes, we want to use these transportation trust funds to mask the size of the general fund deficit, but that is the only logical inference one can draw. That is implicit in their statement. They apparently think it is right. Many think it is wrong. Some 224 Members of this body, a majority, have cosponsored this legislation. My good friend talked about Republicans. Republicans historically in the past have voted, over 60 percent of Republicans, in favor of taking these transportation trust funds off budget, because they see this not only as a financial issue, but as an issue of honesty in government. Indeed, many of us believe that it is wrong to tell the American people we are going to take your gas tax or we are going to take your airplane ticket tax, promise you we are going to use it for transportation improvements, and then instead not spend the money and use it to mask the size of the general fund deficit.”